The Forgotten Trail

One Man's Adventures On The Canadian Route To The Klondike

Few events loom larger in Canadian history than the Klondike Gold Rush. The most famous path to the gold fields- through Dyea in Alaska, over the Chilkoot Pass, down the Yukon by boat- was by no means the only route travelled by gold seekers. Of the several Canadian gateways to the Klondike, the Stikine route was the most heavily used, but, ironically, the least known and least written about. It involved a gruelling trip up the Stikine River by boat or ice sled as far as the communities of Glenora and Telegraph Creek, then overland by horseback or foot to Teslin Lake, and finally by canoe down the Teslin and Yukon Rivers to Dawson. Intrigued by what evidence of the gold rush still lingered on this century-old trail, Vancouver Sun journalist Larry Pynn set out to retrace the route during the summer of 1992. For six weeks he trekked 1,500 kilometres- on foot, horseback and by canoe. Along the way, Pynn encountered some of Canada's most rugged and beautiful terrain. He also discovered many relics- a wooden telegraph pole teetering in the distance, the skeletal remains of a line cabin- from the long-vanished gold rush era. And there's a cast of colourful characters, from back-to-the-landers and commercial fishermen to miners operating a modern-day gold mine and pilots involved in a daring search-and-rescue of the author himself. A dramatic, modern-day adventure, The Forgotten Trail is a fascinating and entertaining story of Canada's gold rush history.